After arriving back from Turtle Island at about 8.30 we quickly got showered, well I did, and grabbed a cab to take us on the hour long drive to Labuk Bay where we would be seeing the Proboscis monkeys. These monkeys are very odd looking with orange fur and big noses and they can only be found in this part of Borneo so we didn’t want to miss them.
when we arrived there was nobody else there, as we walked about the viewing platform we could make out a couple of the monkeys jumping around in the trees but they were a bit hard to see so we decided to go and watch the video about the sanctuary, unfortunately it got to the bit where they were telling us about Alistair the Alpha male and how him and his young were starving in the dry season when the power failed, we never found out what happened to him, I like to think that the rain came just in time and they were all fine.
After the video we went back to the viewing platform ready for the feeding but to our surprise a bunch of Silver Leaf monkeys turned up and were given beans by the rangers. They were so friendly they came right on to the platform and sat amongst us eating their beans, one of them even tried for a cuddle with Ang.
Once they had been sufficiently fed the rangers then put out the food for the Proboscis monkeys and within minutes 30-40 of them came swinging out of the trees, their agility is amazing, they can cover 3 or 4 trees in a leap and a swing. We saw everything from the tiny babies clinging on to their mothers to the big male that shoved all the others around to get his share, one of them even came up to the viewing platform to eat his last banana. We watched them and the silver leafs for about an hour before they all disappeared back to the trees and we disappeared back to the pool.
